PMC to hire private agencies to raze dilapidated buildings

ST Correspondent

Tuesday, 12 September 2017

Pune: It seems the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has just woken up from its slumber and decided to demolish dilapidated and dangerous old structures in the city after a dangerous building collapsed in a congested locality of Mumbai recently killing many people.

The Mumbai building collapse has come as a wake-up call for the PMC as several families still stay in the shadow of death in 113 old dilapidated wadas that have been declared dangerous by the civic body. The PMC is yet to evacuate these 113 old structures.

Pune: It seems the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has just woken up from its slumber and decided to demolish dilapidated and dangerous old structures in the city after a dangerous building collapsed in a congested locality of Mumbai recently killing many people.

The Mumbai building collapse has come as a wake-up call for the PMC as several families still stay in the shadow of death in 113 old dilapidated wadas that have been declared dangerous by the civic body. The PMC is yet to evacuate these 113 old structures.

It has decided to hire services of private agencies and skilled manpower to carry out demolition work during next three months.

There are 384 wadas that are over 100 years old and have been identified as dangerous structures in 16 congested peth areas of old Pune. Of these 384 dangerous structures, the PMC has carried out structural audits and surveys of 224 wadas.

The PMC has failed to evacuate the families staying in 113 of these dangerous structures. The civic body has served eviction notices to the families staying in the dangerous wadas, requesting them to evacuate their residence before the monsoon. Senior PMC officers said residents of dangerous wadas are mostly tenants. They do not wish to evacuate as they fear losing rights over the property.